Inmates from the Bard Prison Initiative outsmarted the Harvard debate team at a New York state lockup last month. The Bard program has already handed out nearly 350 college degrees to prisoners. Three men incarcerated for violent crimes at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility defeated the elite debate team from Harvard University.
On one side of the stage sat three Ivy League undergraduates from the elite Harvard debate team, while sitting opposite them were three men serving felony prison sentences for violent crimes.
After an hour of intellectual sparing the fast-moving debate was over, with the judges declaring victory for the inmates after weighing the veracity of each teams’ arguments.
The audience, which included almost 75 fellow participants in the Bard College Initiative, burst into applause when it was announced that the prison debate team had bested the Harvard team.
Posted By PSmooth